Notifications & Messages

Hey - It’s time to join the thousands of other dealer professionals on DrivingSales. Create an account so you can get full access to the articles, discussions and people that are shaping the future of the automotive industry.

Discussions

Steps to implementing a BDC...

I have been tasked with putting together an outline to implement a BDC at our dealership, so I was hoping I could get some additional ideas from those who have done this. As of now we have an internet manager who handles all the 300+ leads we receive. After meeting with the dealer principle he his on board with me forming a BDC and melding said internet manager into the BDC as a rep. I just wanted to make sure I was not missing anything regarding the behind the scenes stuff that needed to be done.
I was wanting to start small and grow from there. So....
1) Begin advertising and hire 1 or maybe 2 reps.
2) Restructure our CRM lead distribution so as to have leads round-robined amongst said reps.
3) Implement process for lead follow-up and appointment hand off to sales consultants.
Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated. I want to make sure I have all my bases covered once this starts to get implemented.

How do you guys handle handing off appointments that show to sales reps? Does the BDC rep go out to greet them and then hands them off to a sales person? Or do you just have a sales person begin working with them as soon as they come in and ask for the person they spoke with on the phone?
And you're right Lauren. I'll have to make sure the new rep is properly trained before I throw a bunch of leads at him/her.

I handle all of our internet leads here. We are a single dealership so it's not too many for me to handle by myself and I still have time to get other things done. When it comes to leads I can keep them and work them or hand them off however I see fit. If I am handing it off then I make sure to schedule the appointment, let the salesman I am passing it to know when they will be here, and then greet the customer, introduce myself, and then introduce them to the salesman and let them take over from there with the assurance that if there is anything else that I can do to just let me know. It not only instills confidence in the customer that no matter who they are with they have someone to go back to and that they will be well taken care of, but it also breaks the ice for the salesman and the customer and the customer doesn't feel like they are dumped onto the salesman.